Day 283. Saved!

Today I'm off to Reading early for GCEP(S) kick-off; so I anxiously cycle off wondering what I'm leaving behind. Phone M on the train back, and relieved to find all is well.

And indeed, all does seem well: the pipes are shuffled into place, the boxing is shrunk to the size it should be, the toilet functions (no washbasin, but I can forgive them that) and the bath taps work - I wonder if I dare to try to have a bath?

Outside, the slabs are grouted into place and we're now allowed to walk on them, and the side near the old front door is gravelled. So we look much neater outside than we have for a while.

Day 282. Disaster!

Sort of. Tim is here doing the chippie-ing for Pete to come tomorrow to install toilet, basin and bath taps. This involves building boxing in the shower-room in order to hide the pipes and the soil-pipe vent stack. OK so far. But when I come back at 2 for a look, the boxing is massive and intrusive - the plans show it quiet in the corner, but it sticks out a foot. This is because Pete tPP has put the soil stack far out, and the gas pipe also. Arghhhh! This is (a) a waste of Tims time and (b) liable to prevent us getting a functional bathroom by the weekend and (c) fixable? Phone various people... no Ian; no Pete. Get Bob, who will call Pete. Argh! Depressing.

Outside, Pete and Paul are laying slabs and breaking up slabs and that bit looks good.

Later: go to Ians at 8, but its his birthday and he is having dinner with his wife. But will come round early tomorrow...

Day 281. Digging

We have agreed plans (but, I think, no price... oops) for the paving/gravelling of the front edge to the kitchen. Today Paul and Pete set to digging, and its amazing what two well disciplined diggers can accomplish and how neatly it can all be done. Sadly this dumps a pile of topsoil into the skip, but we can think of nothing useful to do with it. Inside, Les the delivery man has morphed into Les the wallpaper steamer.

Day 280. Upstairs electrics and invisible plumbing

Carl and Pete tPP here, Carl for much longer. Pete re-arranging some plumbing into the void, so to speak, which meant it had no visible effects as far as I could see. Carl gets most of the upstairs electrics fixed, it would seem, so we'll see him sometime next week, and progress on the upstairs bathroom should now be rapid (oh yeah?).

Day 279. Gravel etc

I don't think any building happened today. We did get a bag of gravel, and some anti-weed membrane, and some concrete slabs delivered to clog up our nice clean driveway :-(

Day 278. Soil pipe and cleanup

Not all that much visibly to show on the building front today... the shower is now plywood-panelled in, and a new soil pipe now runs down the old-kitchen corner into the new waste system. I'm guessing there was more behind the scenes. Upstairs all the new doors are now on.

Outside, though, there has been a big tidy up. Firstly the hole by the front door is no more - Paul swiggled the soil pipe connections then filled it in. So we have less soil pile in the front garden and it looks much tidier. Also the skip area is tidied - well its all thrown into the skip awaiting a lorry, cos its full now (and Tim helpfully sawed up the old TV arial which was on a scaffolding pole so thats gone too - should I have kept a potentially useful pole - no!). And some of the junk near the new front door is gone too.

Day 277. And Pete tPP. Shower tray. Granite

Today Pete tPP (the Portly Plumber, if you've been forgetting) joins the crew. I leave them to it. Not quite sure whats gone on... the shower tray is in place, and some waste piping for it and the bath next door. Also the shower valves and pipes in place. Meanwhile Tim has hung some doors.

In town, to Howdens (uselessly) and MFI (ditto) about cooker hoods - we have a problem with this, since we have a window at 2m and only 1100 mm between the sill and the worktop, which at a min 650 mm clearance leaves only 450 mm to fit the hood into, a thing we didn't think of before buying one... Bosch tech support suggest the DHU 635, which is not glorious but is practical and would definitely fit.

Later on, talk with Ian about general progress (its going as fast as can be expected, is his opinion) and his plans for the front: various slabs, and a step by the front door.

More interestingly, I've been to Ivett and Reed to inspect the granite we're proposing to buy for the worktop, cos one of their chaps felt we ought to see the veining, cos apparently it can have these flaws. Sadly he wasn't there, but a chap who didn't really think there was any great problem was there... So we went to look at the slabs. See pix above. RHS: me reflected in the slab, with the vein running vertically through me. Can't see it? Try the LHS pic, maybe full sized. You only see it in certain angles of the light, it isn't a structural weakness. To the rubbed finger it can barely be felt, with a thumbnail you can just catch it in a few places. So we'll live with that.

The funny strips at the bottom of the top RHS pic are other slabs, BTW.

Day 276. Also Carl: electricity in the kitchen!

Tim and Pete back again, Tim hanging doors and Pete plastering (I've slightly lost track of exactly what, though). No Pete tPP - sadly there is a burst water main elsewhere (Harrys work, apparently :-) so he is off all monring; was expected pm but alas no.

But Carl sets to on the electrics. First off he is making sure Tim doesn't get ahead of him upstairs. Then he gets the kitchen electrics wired in to the main circuit via holes in the joists, as appropriate. Also puts in a socket for the washer and the drier (which were not scheduled to be there when we first planned the kitchen). We still need to get the lights wire in that corner down under the unit. Carl busy doing stuff till 5.

Day 275. Linen cupboard and some plastering and a toilet delivered

After the Easter break...

Tim completes the linen cupboard, putting in the shelves and the doors, which have elegant knobs and magnetic catches. Still needs painting insied at some point. But, we have a useable linen cupboard, which is nice. Also hangs the door into what will be E's room.

Pete steadily plasters this and that, together with some chipping off of old plaster upstairs.

Early on I phone Bob to try to hurry along the toilet and washbasin upstairs bit. Late in the day the appropriate bits are indeed delivered, splendid, hopefully they can go in tomorrow.

Speculatively, I phone TG re the barn conversions at Rectory Farm. £1.25M "guide price", which is a long way above our means.

Day 274: Same again :-)

More steady but unspectacular progress upstairs. Pete tPP moves the gas pipe across a bit to allow plasering. Tim puts in the fanlights with clear glass, and moves the cabinets downstairs upwards, and puts on their panels. Pete the bricklayer plasters up some more. The shower base is in the bathroom, but not put in.

Day 273: Tim and Pete and Pete

Mostly Tim and Pete today, who (I finally realise for sure) are brothers. One of them (Pete I think) is also a good draughtsman, judging from the little bird drawn on the wall. The linen cupboard, and the ceiling of Mirandas room, get plastered.

Pete the plumber comes in the afternoon, and moves the washing machine into the new kitchen: we may need a longer hose to move it into the far corner.

The sanitaryware is a nightmare - the wrong toiler and washbasin were delivered last week. Argh. Apparently this always happens. Anyway, at the end of the day after all gone, a shower base is delivered, and the wrong bits taken away.

Both Ian and Bob come round, perhaps because we have been whinging about lack of progress recently...

Day 272: Pete

Quiet day: Pete the bricklayer puts his plasterers hat on and quietly does two of the walls upstairs, and strips the ceiling in Mirandas room ready for plastering tomorrow.

Day 271: Tim and Karl

Tim comes but doesn't start till 9:30, as arranged. He is putting in a frame downstairs (from new hall into dining room), then putting in the cooker-stack unit in the kitchen (so M can contact the granite folk to get the worktops templated). We're somewhat disappointed to have only one person here, though Carl is turning up later it seems, as there is a lot to be done upstairs. However with the wrong toilet etc not much can be done plumbing wise until thats sorted out.

Back 3:30: Carl has been around, so Tim has managed to get in the second side of some of the studwork walls in the two end bedrooms. Leave to pick up D as Tim is packing up but Carl still going.

Day 270-272: Happy Birthday to us!

Yes, today (5th) marks the years anniversary of the building works. I have to say we hoped it would be over rather sooner, although some delays (Party Wall Act; Christmas) haven't helped.

Anyway, stuff for weds-fri occurred while I was away, so I only saw the end result, which is the upstairs has new studwork walls where they should be, but nothing much else, only our room remains inhabitable.

Sadly the toilet and basin that were delivered are the wrong sort, so that may slow things down :-(

Day 269: Reconfigured

Well, the house is definitely different now. Out with the old stairs, in with the new.

So, where the stairs were this morning is now a downstairs room and two upstairs rooms, one big, one a bit pokey. There is a neat hole through from the bottom of the new stairs to the kitchen - and not even too much dust. I'll have to remember to turn the other way if I need the bathroom in the night...

-- Miriam.

Day 268: The fun begins...

The builders don't turn up in the morning (this was arranged) but are well on their way when I come back at lunchtime: the carpets are up, the handrail is gone and the wall to the spare room is coming down block by block. Pete piles three breeze blocks on his shoulders and takes them out; Paul & Tim take out buckets of smaller stuff as they go.

By this evening, the spare room's wall, and its built-in cupboard, have vanished. There has been a bit of work in the bathroom, removing the fixtures. Tomorrow, the staircase is coming out first thing.

-- Miriam.